Britain has become the world center for boycotts of Israeli goods and of academic exchange. It is rare to pass a day without an email from a supporter of the Jewish state bringing to my attention yet another boycott campaign. Whether it is grassroots campaigns to label oranges and avocados in supermarkets or universities stopping academic cross-fertilization of brainpower, the many forces at work in Britain seem never to run out of momentum.

It is therefore all the more lamentable that British soldiers are suffering losses every month in Afghanistan, yet the country does not promote good relations with Israel, the world expert on defusing IEDs (improvised explosive devices). On December 13 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited troops in Kandahar, the first British head of state to visit servicemen in a war zone since Winston Churchill in the Second World War. Brown told the media during his visit that soldiers “were discovering improvised explosive devices every two hours.”

On television in the months leading up to the prime ministerial visit to the war zone, bereaved British mothers, sisters, and widows lamented the shortage of bomb disposal experts and the apparent lack of appropriate equipment and protective gear available to their sons, brothers, and husbands. On BBC television’s Question Time on Thursday, December 10, recorded in Wootton Bassett, a town hit particularly hard by recent war losses, anguished women asked panelist Sir Richard Dannatt, former head of the armed forces, for better care of the fighting men.

In the meantime Israeli bomb disposal experts are available for consultation, but if the word “Israel” so much as appears in any public discourse, those same studio audiences erupt in rage at the “apartheid” state that engages in “ethnic cleansing,” and they refuse to see the connection between Israel’s sixty-year defensive battle against terror and the war their menfolk are facing in Taliban-land.

Researching this article I came upon a compelling screed, “Countering Improvised Explosive Devices” by Colonel David Eshel of the IDF, or Israeli Defense Forces. What is intriguing is that the piece was published in the Royal Tank Regiment Journal, Volume 771, way back in March 2005.

Eshel recounts the events after cessation of initial hostilities in Iraq in 2003, when insurgent attacks began to dominate the landscape, but coalition leaders seemed uninterested in briefings on IEDs. He asserts: “It seems therefore strange, and possibly inexcusable, that the coalition forces failed to take notice of the vast combat experience that could have become willingly available from its Israeli allies, in order to at least try and reduce the heavy loss of life sustained mainly by U.S. forces from IED and suicide attacks.”

Eshel’s article makes it clear that the range and lethality of IEDs are staggering: In the early days of the Iraqi insurgency, attackers pulled out the firing pins of hand grenades and kept them from detonating by holding down the “spoon” and covering it with ducting tape. By dropping it into a canister filled with gasoline, the tape would dissolve in a few hours and cause a terrific explosion. Terrorists would place an obstruction on the road, causing vehicles to stop and investigate; the results were catastrophic.

34 Comments, 34 Threads

1.
Ruvy

Ms. Gould,

Why should we Jews give a rat’s ass about the damned Brits?

Stupidity is its own reward. Stupid is as stupid does. One can go on with the aphorisms to explain the behavior of an idiotic John Bull that has always dogged the attempts of Jews to attain a homeland and secure it.

There is no reason to beg to help our ENEMIES, Ms. Gould. And the Brits are and always have been our enemies. Let them die by their own stupidity. It couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people. Let these pernicious bastards come on their hands and knees and beg for our help. Even then, they don’t deserve it. They deserve only sand in their eyes – and more dead because of their own stupidity and hatred.

Leave the Brits alone, their bull headed and arrogant stupidity over the past centuries will once again deteriorate their stature in the world. After centuries of building a law abiding, secure and prosperous society it has been nothing but a downhill run with only Churchill and Thatcher as speed bumps along the way. They seem bent on self destruction, one IED at a time, sad.

Truth be told, you most certainly do care. You are a nation obsessed with a hatred of Jews and the proud Jewish State of Israel. I personally have lost loved ones to the Jihadists. And you and your brothers what are you fighting for? The pawns of the Arab world. The Arabs the English slaughtered for centuries? In all of my travels I have never met more people who speak as if they know so much when in reality are so clueless. You Brits are a trip.

The chickens (no pun intended) have come home to roost. After the Labor Party was elected in the mid-nineties, it intentionally allowed Britain to be flooded with Moslems. The reason was simple and tawdry: to stay in power. Well, Labor will soon learn that nothing trumps Sharia. Soon, neither they nor the Tories will be in power much longer. Voters never seem to learn that elections have consequences. The British who chose to elect Labor will see their once proud land descend into another corner of Dar Es Salaam. How the mighty have fallen.

The strange fact of the matter is that sometime in the 1970s, the left took a right turn and ended up way over on the far right (far to the right of Bush). I first noticed this when the Muslims of Iran stole the revolution and butchered a bunch of leftists. I noticed to my surprise that none of my leftist friends were bothered by this. They still support this regime and are indifferent to the fate of the protesters.

The left I knew from the 1960s and early 1970s was a left that was interested in black rights and women’s rights and gay rights. It was suspicious of traditional religion because it was seen as oppressive. It was also interested in the rights of people of the Third World. But for all these groups, leftist support was available only up to a point. Leftists expected that those it supported would support its general program, so blacks like Clarence Thomas and women like Sarah Palin were thought of as traitors to the cause. Likewise, anyone in the Third World who was seen as hostile to the left’s causes (such as many Third-World Christians) was treated with contempt.

This, then, is the left I am familiar with. Yet, when it comes to Muslims, the left has simply lost its bearings. It seems willing to support any Muslim, no matter how distant from the left he (and it’s usually a he) may be. He wants to stone adulterous women? “No problem,” says the left. He wants to execute gays? “Why should this bother you?” asks the left.

And it is impossible to tell any leftist how stupid they are being. In arguing with them, I’ve been told that I’m confused, when in fact they are the ones who are confused because it goes against everything they believe. There is nothing like this before in the history of the left, as far as I know, other than the Nazi-Soviet pact, and that proved to be a disaster.

As for the Palestinians, the sensible leftist should ask, “Where are women and gays treated best?” And that’s a no-brainer: In Israel. Israel deserves our support, if only for that reason.

Maybe someday we can count on a left that is being sensible, but for now, I don’t see much hope of a change of feeling.

Jew-hatred and Englishness go together like fish and chips. The Jews were expelled from England in 1290 — long before the more famous expulsion from Spain in 1492 — and there’s plenty of historical evidence that contempt for Jews was common well before then. You’ll find this contempt in Chaucer, who wrote in the 14th century, before the English language took its modern form. Jew-hatred — or at least a strong disdain for Jews — has been a staple of English history ever since, especially among the upper class. The brutal — some would call it barbaric — treatment of the Jews in mandatory Palestine in the 30′s and 40′s was hardly an accident. Back in the British isles, Jew-hatred was rampant in both decades. What we’re seeing today is nothing but an intensified version of an old, old British affliction: the detestation of Jews. So what else is new?

The Brits think making nice nice with with their islamic citizens will stop terror within their borders, and by bashing Israel that will comb down the radical Islamist. I think the Brits are for another rude awakening. Will we (USA) some day have to come to there rescue again?

I have a tremendous amount of sympathy for Israel and for the Jewish people historically. Jews however have made it almost a crusade(sorry but true)to undermine Christian values in this country,because (we) represent old europeon values that brought forth people like Hitler. It’s not true but a majority of Jewish people believe that to be true.
Yes, western Christian’s failed many times to reject anti-semitism, but were Hitler , Stalin and Gomulka Christian’s?

It is therefore all the more lamentable that British soldiers are suffering losses every month in Afghanistan, yet the country does not promote good relations with Israel, the world expert on defusing IEDs

If the British government cared about the lives of British soldiers it wouldn’t have sent them into these senseless foreign wars in the first place.

#1 Ruvy: did you go and visit the site I wrote you yesterday. if not here it is: http://www.babeland.com that would be very helpful to you.

Carol: what exactly is your point here? Bashing the Isralei government is not the same as bashing Jews. Cut the bull and get real. I love Jews but I hate Israeli government.
I love Sadui, but hate their government
I love Iranians but hate thier…
I love Zimbabwens, but I hate their..
I love Yemenis, but I hate their ….
I love Lybians, but I hate their….
I love Egyptians, but I hate their…
I love Jordanians, but I hate their…
Do you now get it simpleton: it is different….
The Israeli government is a D…bag. Perhaps you should visit the site that I just recomended Ruvy.. it could help you out…
Happy Holidays!!

I’ll tell you why, b/c your country, like most western societies have become overly intoxicated with tolerance to the point of blind, reckless ignorance. When political correctness undermines sensible and accurate logic, loopholes are manufactured and exploited for an infrastructure of impurity to thrive.

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mr @ #13: Israel is a republican democracy. The people vote for the government. About 75% of the people in Israel are Jews. The government represents them. If you hate the government, then you hate the people that voted for the representatives that comprise the government. Insofar as the people who voted for those representatives are overwhelmingly Jewish, then, irrespective of what you say your feeling are towards Jews, you must hate the Jews who voted for the government.

As someone who never liked Jews once said: Some of my best friend are ….

#16: it is not…
if someone identifies as a muslim and not practicing such as myself you could say that. but as whole you have to respect people’s religion even though you may hate say in your casr Islam.
In my case I hate all religions.

While there are a few British troops fighting alongside the UN coalition forces in Afghanistan it certainly appears that the once powerful and proud British Empire is but a weak shadow of its former self. I don’t remember exactly when but it was just a little while ago that some British sailors surrendered to a rowboat full of Iranians. I almost fell out of my chair when I read that, imagine the British Navy, the offspring of Nelson and Drake, surrendering to a bunch of…well Iranians. Simply unbelievable. As for Jews and England, well except for the period of time at or about 1940 when refugee children from Europe were accepted into England thus saving their lives I don’t think there has been much love lost between the English and the Jews. So if this is the path they choose, they will find out very quickly who their friends and who their enemies actually are. A Muslim conquest of England would give them a jumping off point for the conquest of the rest of Europe.

There is a peculiar dissonance in a society that can profess government as a liberal parliamentary democracy, yet now offer succour and sustenance to presidential uniquely Arabic mafioso undemocratic assassins?

Hitlerism and self aggrandisement make odd bedmates. Whatever happened to the nation that went to war on a principle in support of other like minded freedom loving peoples? Could it be that political grasping for minority votes has overtaken true democracy?

Not that the English have ever been notable friends of the Jews. But there’s never, to the best of my knowledge, been this level of enmity.

This is purely a measure of the degree to which British society has been taken over by, or surrendered to the mohammedans.

And the British left is in it up to their sharpened teeth.

The nazis (national socialists) are back, but in a new form, without the German language and the strange Prussian enthusiasms — but with the same weird hatred of the Jews, and the same hatred of the free individual.

I hope the British manage to take their country back. But I’m not holding my breath.

What I don’t understand is why the Israelis don’t boycott Britain. If things continue this way I certainly will, and will encourage everybody else I know to do so as well.

Well, we could just boycott the UK. Problem is.. does the UK produce anything?

Unfortunately, the Brits do produce something I like. Kelloggs produces cornflakes for sale in Europe & the Middle East. And I’ll be damned if I give the Brits one shekel of my money. So, no Kelloggs Cornflakes for me!

Ms. Gould has got to learn that it is not for us to seek to help those who hate us.

As for the Brit-bashing? They earned it – the old-fashioned way. They hate our guts. Let them burn for eternity right next to the nazis!

#7 As far as women riding on the back of buses and getting slapped, this pertains to some in the ultra orthodox communities in Jerusalem. Most Israeli women would slap the man right back. I know, I lived in Israel and I can tell you that the women take no crap from any man.

#11 Jews however have made it almost a crusade(sorry but true)to undermine Christian values in this country,

Really? All Jews or just some? Do you have the stats to back up that statement?

Do you know that many of the greatest Christmas songs were written by Jews, including the following:

White Christmas
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World)
Santa Baby
Holly Jolly Christmas
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
I’ll Be Home for Christmas
Silver Bells
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
White Christmas

Also, the song Easter Parade was written by a Jew, Irving Berlin.

Talk radio hosts such as Mark Levin, Michael Savage and Dennis Prager defend Christians and Christianity regularly on their shows.

Most Jews I know, including myself, say Merry Christmas when others say happy holidays. Most Jews I know defend Judeo-Chritian values and all that they stand for. I think you have Jews confused with athiests and liberals.

See below what the great Winston Churchill wrote over one hundred years ago and reflect on the campaign against the entire non muslim world now being carried out. Islam believes itself to be the one perfect religion with all others being inferior. However, look at their backward countries and you will see that there is no basis for their belief in their superiority, Islam preaches hate to all, even to other islamic sects who they are quite happy to murder, and insinuates itself into positions of power and then take control of the societies which it has penetrated. This technique is well tried and it works; the communists and the fascists used it. All totalitarian, anti democratic regimes come to power in this way. Islam is anti-democratic, totalitarian and unbelievably wicked in its beliefs and practices. The West must get off its backside and take whatever steps are needed to remove the followers of islam from our democratic, free and liberal societies. If we do not, get ready for sharia law, in all its evils.

Now read what Churchill wrote all those years ago.

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen: all know how to die. But the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

The sherry sippers with the bad teeth are quite simply doomed.They are a pathetic bunch who still fall over themselves to pay tribute to the longest standing social assistance family in history-the Royals.

I don’t know what there teeth looked like,many had had their heads blown off.
I doubt they where drinking sherry.The saying is ‘a nation of tea drinkers’.

The Queen is our Head of State. A non political role who represents us abroad.
Everything in the U.S is viewed through a left/right prism and you seem to want any leader Obama/Bush to fail.
She represents everyone,many in the U.S seem to despise your own leaders.

They bring millions in through tourism,mainly from America.
There is probably more crap Princess Diana figurines in your land then mine.
Her funeral was one of the most viewed event EVER.

I am sure that when William and Harry get married there will be some interest,which means more money for us.

Those sherry sippers made Britain great. It is these trumped up liberals that hold Israel to separate moral code that have led to this sorry state of affairs. The Gaza war and its fall out was outrageous, Israel picked out Hamas targets hiding behind civilians and for the most part minimising casualties. Those that unfortunately did occur were looped on the TV for days after; this does not happen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel goes to greater lengths to minimise civilian casualties than the other allies yet are demonised despite this. Israel had more justification for being in Gaza than the UK does for being in Iraq. This is not anti-Zionism and being critically of the Israeli government it is Anti-Semitism.

Ms. Gould focuses only on one aspect of learning from Israel re the IED. It is jealousy among the various Anglo/US agencies to ‘learn’ anything from Israel. After all,- ‘who do those Jews think they are?’. Other international companies know better,- Israeli security teams ply the seas and monitor airports all over the world. The Nigerian would-be-bomber would not have got on to a flight to Israel; nor would the Afghani terrorist suicide bomber who killed the largest no. of CIA agents in 25years been trusted not to be searched. Islam is a ‘dhimmitude’religion; Christianity also believes in its supremacy; both feel successful Judaism shows them up. Israel trusts no-one but itself as a result,- this is why it survives,- but jealousy won’t allow it to ‘be a light on to the nations’ as the bible prophesises!Eventually,with Islam taking on the rest of the world,it may throw the rest of the world into Israel’s fold. At the moment we Jews have to help Israel which has to fight a rear-guard action all the time,- as well as a frontal assault everywhere.